Am I Evil or Frugal?

[Retire Blogger]

Two days ago I bought a 10 bag of Basmati rice for $9.99, then yesterday I saw the headlines about rice rationing at Sams and Costco, so I went out and bought another 10 bag of rice.

Am I evil or frugal?

I mentioned my rice purchases on another blog, and one poster replied that there are rice shortages in the Phillipines, that I was exacerbating the problem, and that hoarders were being put in jail. If you know that something is going to cost more next week, isn't it frugal to purchase more this week, or is it an immoral act?

Are you hoarding?

[starshard0]

Hoarders are being put in jail? That's just silly, if someone can afford rice, then why shouldn't they be allowed to buy as much as they can afford?

[FitandFrugal]

While I don't think it's evil, I'm not sure running out to hoard stuff is the right thing to do. If a lot of people did it, then it may create a panic and the belief that there are shortages. Buy what you normally would.

[mcnerd]

Originally Posted by Retire Blogger

Am I evil or frugal?

Neither. I would say you were smart and practical.

I mentioned my rice purchases on another blog, and one poster replied that there are rice shortages in the Phillipines, that I was exacerbating the problem, and that hoarders were being put in jail.

I think people like that should move to the Philippines and leave normal people alone. How is your purchase here exacerbating a problem there? If you didn't buy it, would it have instantaneously rematerialized in the Philippines?

Are you hoarding?

Most of us, absolutely not. Hoarding is keeping large amounts of items that to the outside world are considered excessive or worthless/useless. Stocking up on necessary items for future use is not hoarding.

I've been stockpiling most goods for over a year now, just adding a few items extra at a time at the store. Over time it built up.

[saint tim]

Where are they rationing rice? This is news to me.

[Retire Blogger]

Saint Tim:
Rice is being rationed in the U.S.A. See this article. Both Sam's Club and Costco are limiting the amount of rice that can be purchased by customers. People are also stocking up on flour.

As a frugal person, I know it's in my best interest to purchase something when it's cheaper, but when people in the U.S. are shipping rice to their relatives in the Phillipines - is my frugality making the situation worse?

[pidgeon92]

I don't believe in this "shortage." It feels like media fearmongering to me. It's very likely Costco and Sam's use the same vendor, and individual vendors all go through shortages at one time or another.

I bought a 17lb bag a few weeks ago, and frankly I'm more concerned it will go stale before I use it all.

[purplefdu]

If you will go through all that rice its not hoarding, although purchasing it all at one time could cause panic and drive the prices up even more or the limit down to less bags. I am working on a stockpile myself, but at a slow pace per trip to not draw unwanted attention to myself.

I do plan on purchasing rice and flour over the weekend as much as possible and have pasta coupons purchased to stockpile some of that as well (if the four goes up so too does the things made from flour). My husband thinks I'm nuts to a degree, but I'd like to be prepared when gas is climbing close to $5 to not have to worry about spending more on flour or rice than gas even.

[lucille]

The people who are evil are the futures speculators that are artificially driving up the cost of food and gas. A large part of the doubling in the price of rice is due to speculators. A group of people wanting to make a quick buck are making it impossible for people in poor countries to feed themselves. Now that is evil. I hope some regulatory agency at some level ends some of these speculation practices on basic needs like food.

Part of the rationing at Sam's & Costco is to prevent restaurants from buying up tons of bags of rice at the much lower price and stockpiling it. Rice from some of the restaurant suppliers has doubled in price while rice at the wholesale clubs is much lower still. They didn't want someone who owns say an ethnic restaurant that uses lots of rice to come in and buy a years worth of rice to hedge their business expenses and leave none for the household consumers to buy. They need to point this out more in these news stories.

We have been eating more rice and I plan on buying extra bags of what we use over the next month but our usage is far less than a restaurant. I already bought a 50# bag of flour about 3 months ago because I heard the wholesale price was doubling and the bag cost at Sam's had not gone up yet. I am glad I did because they quit carrying the high quality brand I buy right after that. We also bought a bulk bag of spelt flour since we use quite a bit of that too. Actually we have been buying ahead on many things to keep ahead of the price hikes. We bought in on a cow before beef prices went up. We froze milk when it was a $1 less a bottle and keep it as emergency milk if we can't get to the store or run tight on funds for some reason.

[saint tim]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

I don't believe in this "shortage." It feels like media fearmongering to me. It's very likely Costco and Sam's use the same vendor, and individual vendors all go through shortages at one time or another.

I'm with you.

I buy local flour, and he seems to be doing fine.